The Sloth bear population is declining across their distribution range due to habitat degradation, habitat loss, and facing conflicts with humans. These threats are expected to accelerate with increasing urbanization and demand for natural resources. Over the past decade, human interference in their habitats has led to a rise in Human-Sloth bear conflict in India.
Rajasthan, the largest state in India, has limited scientific data on Sloth bears. Existing studies focus mainly on distribution, diet within a single protected area, and local perceptions of the species. These studies highlight the urgent need for further research due to increasing poaching and habitat degradation. This study, supported by Bears in Mind since 2024, aims to investigate occupancy, genetic variability, and population structure across southern Rajasthan in the known distribution range of Sloth bear with an aim to identify local, landscape and genetic data and also contribute to the IUCN Bear Specialist Group’s project on Asian bears range mapping.
Across the Western Himalayas, Himalayan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) and Himalayan Black Bears (Ursus thibetanus), live in proximity with people. These people, many of whom are from various indigenous and tribal groups, are primarily either transhumant pastoralist (eg. the Bakerwals and Gaddis) or agriculturalist (primarily horticulturalists cultivating fruit like apples). This proximity of bears with people is increasingly being augmented by climate change which is altering cropping patterns and habitat loss. This is leading to increased negative human-bear interactions which include, but aren’t limited to, increased raiding of crops by bears and depredation of livestock. Most of which is met with retaliatory killing of bears. If the financial impacts of livelihood loss by bears isn’t adequately mitigated, the illegal retaliatory killing of bears can also lead to engagement in illegal trade of bear parts.
Besides this, direct poaching of bears for their gall bladder is a huge conservation challenge, but often under the shadow of welfare and bear-human conflict issues. All of these conservation threats to bears are spatially explicit, hence in collaboration with Dr. Hinsley, the team aims to identify spatially-explicit priorities for bear conservation across the Western Indian Himalayas.
Based on this baseline information, the team also aims to operationalize a local champions network in one region to actively work towards human-bear conservation interventions to ensure bear conservation while protecting people’s livelihoods.
Bears in Mind supports the project since 2024.
Only about 17% of the estimated 17,000 km2 of Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) habitat in Nepal is effectively protected. The unprotected Sloth bear populations are largely confined to the forests of the Churia hills. In the eastern part of the Churia range lies the Trijuga forest which was once a stronghold for Sloth bears, but now faces unprecedented threats.
The team of WILD CARE (Wildlife Conservation and Research Endeavour Nepal) has gained extensive knowledge over the past three years in this area, and it revealed high levels of human disturbance, resulting in low bear density, patchy distribution, and intense conflicts, pushing bears to the brink of local extinction. Having obtained baseline data, the challenge now is improving locals’ awareness, perceptions and ability to coexist harmoniously with sloth bears and foster support for conservation.
This project, supported by Bears in Mind since 2024, is developed to address this challenge through (i) extensive awareness campaigns in local communities and schools, (ii) sensitization of local-level decision makers to include the needs of Sloth bears in forest use/management guidelines, and (iii) empowerment of community forest members on Sloth bear monitoring. By bridging the gap between scientific research and community engagement, the project offers hope for the long-term survival of Sloth bears in this critical habitat.
The Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) is widely distributed in countries such as Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. In Pakistan, researchers have recorded brown bear populations in 15 localities, with only the Deosai plateau and the Khujarab National park having an increasing population due to conservation efforts. However, other populations are thought to be declining. The Himalayan black bear (Ursus thibetanus) on the other hand, has a restricted distribution in the Himalayan range from Bhutan through Kashmir, Sikkim to Pakistan. In the past, it was present in all mountain areas of northern Pakistan but has faced a sharp decline in the last 40-50 years. There is limited information available about the species.
The study, carried out by a PhD student at the Malakand University and funded by Bears in Mind since 2024, aims to investigate the human-bear interactions, habitat preferences, occupancy patterns, density patterns of bears in the area, population structure, inbreeding, and migration patterns of the bears using genomics. The information generated from this study will be valuable for the conservation of these species and the development of effective management strategies to mitigate human-bear conflicts and conserve the species in their natural habitats.
Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are one of the umbrella species that play an important role for the ecosystem, and is now considered as Vulnerable as per IUCN. The major reason for the continuous decline in its population is habitat degradation and fragmentation due to human settlements and anthropogenic pressures. This has resulted in loss of genetic exchange and hence functional connectivity. If it continues at the same rate, there will only be groups of isolated populations of Sloth bears with very low genetic diversity and high risk of inbreeding depression, ultimately resulting in extinction.
An earlier study by Thatte et al. (2019) highlighted the negative impact of human settlements and landscape features on Sloth bear functional connectivity. Another study by Dutta et al. (2015) also highlighted the importance of corridors for Sloth bears in Satpura-Maikal Landscape. In this project, the team wishes to investigate genetic diversity, gene flow and population structure in the western part of Maharashtra that will include three protected areas; Melghat Tiger Reserve, Yawal Wildlife Sanctuary and Gautala Wildlife Sanctuary. There has been information to connect these areas through corridors based on movement of tigers, but none of the studies have been carried out to identify the functional connectivity in this region.
This study, co-funded by Bears in Mind and the IBA since 2024, investigates the effect of landscape features on functional connectivity among Sloth bear populations in the Melghat landscape, India.
The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is one of the iconic species in Pakistan, which occupies mountainous ecosystem of the Hindu Raj Mountain Range (HMR) and extirpated from the most of its historic range in Pakistan. The species population is continuously declining and the known distribution range of these bears is shrinking due to habitat loss and fragmentation. The species has faced local extirpations from several valleys in the region. Bears face threats like habitat loss and fragmentation due to the ever growing human population and infrastructure, poaching for trade in body parts, and competition with growing livestock numbers over limited food and poor range land management practices.
Extreme weather conditions, difficult terrain and political unrest make scientific exploration challenging in the habitat of these bears. This means information on the species existence is still either non-existent or anecdotal for a major part of the species range. Lack of information limits the provincial wildlife departments and conservation organizations for appropriate planning and management of the bear population.
This project by the Wildlife Ecology Lab at the University of Haripur, financially supported by Bears in Mind since 2024, aims to fill information gaps, spatiotemporal distribution pattern, population dynamics, negative interactions over livestock losses and crop damages and identification of key conservation areas. The modern data collection and analytical approaches will be adopted to build a scientific database of bears in HMR. Awareness session with communities and capacity building of wildlife staff will also be facilitated during the project activities.
Gut microbial diversity of Asian bears is poorly studied; most studies have been conducted on brown bears and other European and American bear species. The goal of this research project by the Wildlife and Conservation Biology (WCB) Research lab is to study the gut microbial diversity of wild and captive Sloth bears in order to understand and compare microbial diversity.
The scat samples of wild sloth bears will be collected from Jessore wildlife sanctuary, in Gujarat state, which is known for the high density of Sloth bears in India. The samples of captive sloth bears will be collected from various zoos and bear rescue facilities in India. Fresh scats will be collected in a sterile bottle containing normal saline solution, and the microbial isolation will be carried out by conventional microbiological methods. Further identification will be done using Vitek-2 compact, an automated rapid identification system used for microbial identification. Genotypic analysis will be performed using 16s rRNA analysis by Sanger sequencing, followed by data analysis using BLASTN.
Microbiome biology is currently a relatively unexplored subject in conservation biology, but it has immense promise for understanding the effects of habitat degradation and nutrient availability. The findings will help to the zoos worldwide where the Sloth bears are kept and the State Forest Department to understand the health status of wild Sloth bears and their seasonal nutritional requirements.
Conservation efforts in Bangladesh have predominantly focused on large charismatic species in the Sundarbans, such as Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris). However, beyond the Sundarbans, the ecology, risk assessment, local perception and conflict management for species like the Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts’ (CHT) primary and agro-mosaic forest landscape in the southeast of the country, has not been adequately recognized.
As the sympatric existence of Asiatic black bear and Sun bear has been documented from the CHT, there is no information on bear foraging ecology and coexistence to date. Anecdotal reports of human-bear conflicts suggest that loss and fragmentation of suitable forest habitat and reductions in food sources have increased the likelihood of human-bear conflicts as both species frequently encounter cultivated areas, often resulting in retaliatory killings. The lack of systematic studies and targeted conservation efforts for bears, coupled with the prevalent threats of habitat loss, retaliatory killing, and poaching, poses a significant risk of local extinction. Furthermore, the inadequate understanding of local communities’ attitudes toward bears exacerbates the challenges in implementing effective conservation strategies.
Thus, there is an urgent need for comprehensive research and conservation initiatives focused on bears in the CHT region to mitigate the threat of extinction and promote coexistence between bears and human communities.
The aim of the project is to increase our understanding of bear distribution and habitat utilization in a human-dominated landscape and engage the local communities to build a foundation for a longterm community-based bear conservation program in the region.
Bears in Mind financially supports this project since 2024.
Criminals use the Netherlands to operate a network of illegal trade in traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) that contain endangered animals and plants. This is shown in a joint project and investigation by Dutch foundations SPOTS, IUCN NL, Bears in Mind and internationally-known Earth League International (an authority on criminal networks behind illegal wildlife trade). The findings of their investigation is shocking.
IUCN NL, stichting SPOTS, Bears in Mind and Earth League International (ELI) initiated a project to establish whether there is a market in the Netherlands for TCM containing illegally used and traded (wild) animal parts and, if so, how these (wild) animal parts are smuggled into the Netherlands. On behalf of these organizations ELI was commissioned to investigate this trade. The intelligence-led operations started in September 2021 and ended in December 2022 and aimed to compile and analyze information on the trafficking routes, the main destinations, modus operandi and the key drivers. These findings were shared with the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) in 2023. They started a follow-up investigation, several warehouse searches were done, seizures made and an arrest took place. The investigation is still ongoing.
Inspectors from the NVWA search through a substantial quantity of TCM produce (c) NVWA
According to the latest TRAFFIC report on seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the EU in 2022, the most frequently seized commodity type was medicinals (plant-and animal-derived medicinals which comprises medicines, extracts and cosmetics); accounting for 1,058 seizure records (29% of the total 2022 seizures). Animal-derived medicinals in 2022 accounted for 17% of the medicinals trade. Trade continued in medicinal products containing i.e. seahorse, venomous snakes, musk deer and sturgeon. But also bears Ursidae spp. (App. I,II/ Annex A,B). With 18% of the total seizures in CITES-listed wildlife in the EU, the Netherlands takes the second position after Germany (25%).
IUCN NL, stichting SPOTS, Bears in Mind and ELI also wish to raise awareness among politicians and the wider public in the Netherlands about the issues and impact this trade of illegal TCM has on specific species.
More details can be found in the full report here.
Tasked with the huge challenge of conserving nature in a changing world, biologists are turning to new technologies to better understand wildlife and monitor trends. Simultaneously, it is now understood that monitoring programs combining multiple knowledge-based systems improves the management and conservation of wild species and places.
Bear face detection software developed by researcher Melanie Clapham
This new project, funded by Bears in Mind and led by an Indigenous non-profit society called Nanwakolas Council Society (NCS), works within this capacity, advancing bear conservation through automated visual identification, coupled with brown bear research and monitoring using Indigenous Knowledge. The team previously used machine learning to develop software that identifies individual brown bears in images using facial recognition. The team now plans to apply this software to generate vital knowledge for landscape and bear conservation. The team has partnered with Indigenous Guardian programs from six First Nations, combining local knowledge with scientific data on individual bear movements to generate new ecological knowledge and a novel method of wildlife monitoring. The teams approach and open-sourced software will provide a replicable technique that can be applied to other bear species worldwide. Results will directly inform brown bear conservation planning in the Southern Great Bear Rainforest – the largest tract of connected coastal temperate rainforest left on the planet, and therefore of international significance.
All images used here are (c) BearID Project
Individual bears recognized by AI (c) BearID Project
